By Leslie Lindsay

Welcome back for another “Fiction Friday!” 

Here is an “out-take” from my novel-in-progress.  It just doesn’t add to the story, so I chose to remove it.  But I still kind of liked it.  Perhaps it will make it’s way into something else in the future? 

I find that I often go off on tangents like this to develop my characters, their backstory, and motivation.  It’s a way for me to “pre-write,” if you will, you know–get the juices flowing before I can tackle my real characters and their real problems. 

For now, I am saving all of my out-takes in a document on my computer.  Perhaps they will become inspiration for another project.

What do you do with the snippets that no longer work?  Okay, here goes:

“There was Ellen, and Conor. They were separated at college.  She was from a working-class Irish-American family who couldn’t afford to send her away to a nice college.  Instead, she went to a small in-state institution not really well-respected, but it was better than nothing.  Conor left for some high-ranked private school—Ellen wasn’t sure if it was Notre Dame or Boston University, her parents suggested she “forget about that boy…he’s too preppy for you.”   She did. 

She met Luke, who was a little too tall and a little too skinny, but he had a winning smile and a promising job at a local quarry—a supervisor position.  She married him, dropping out of college when she was three months pregnant.  They had a happy marriage—three kids—but he died in a terrible work-related accident.  

After her grieving was over, she lurked on the Internet, secretly considering joining an on-line dating service.  With the kids mostly grown and busy with their friends and their studies that Ellen felt lonely, displaced. 

It was one of those strange blasts-from-the-pasts when she typed his name into Google, her fingers feeling the phantom allure as they moved, almost on their own accord, Conor McIntyre.  He had moved back to the area, opened up a law practice about twenty miles away, McIntyre & Byrne.  Who was Byrne?  Ellen had sent an email mail to “contact us” and received a response within one day.  Needless to say, she didn’t need that on-line dating service.  And Byrne was a woman.  A married woman.” 

[As with every “Fiction Friday,” this is original work and does not represent anyone living or dead.  Any likiness are coincidences of the author’s imagination.  Please do not use this work as your own…thanks for reading!]